


Synchronicity II

by AnselaJonla



Series: HFY [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, r/HFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28029900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnselaJonla/pseuds/AnselaJonla
Summary: Humans synchronising to music is even more terrifying when there is a threat to fight as well
Series: HFY [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600498
Kudos: 2





	Synchronicity II

Where there is the movement of goods and people through largely unpopulated areas, there will be those who prey on them. This is a fact of life among every species discovered thus far, and this piratical behaviour does not disappear once a species becomes space-faring. Some would even argue that it becomes worse, the vastness of space allowing for pirates to ply their wicked trade with even greater ease than they ever could on a planet.

Every ship is armed as a result, and the pirates know it. Unfortunately a merchant vessel or scientific research ship can never outgun even a light frigate, and those form the bulk of any pirate fleet. All they can really do is hope to outrun the pirates, to try and reach the edge of the gravity well and jump back into hyperspace before they're crippled and boarded.

The Alliance scientific vessel _Allentin_ drifts in space, its port engines shredded by a pirate missile. Unable to manoeuvre, the captain orders everyone to take shelter in the mess. The great chamber is buried in the centre of the ship, large enough to hold the entire crew, surrounded by thick armour and maglocked doors.

Pirates don't usually bother with trying to force entry, preferring instead to ransack the rest of the ship unopposed.

The ship's small complement of humans are reluctant to take shelter there. Hiding isn't in their nature, they claim. Even the knowledge that the armoury is within that protected core isn't enough to mollify them entirely.

Human David huddles against the communications system access port again, as if fiddling with it will ease his mind. He's claimed a rifle from the armoury, which rests against his leg as he tinkers. Other humans are arrayed near the two great doors, as if ready to take action against anyone who breaks in.

The progress of the pirates into the ship is shown on the great screen on one wall. It's a single species crew, which is a rarity. And the collective snarl of the humans sends most other species searching for cover.

The Jurin aren't a part of the Alliance, and were one of the first species that humanity met among the stars. The crew of the human scout ship that met them was ritually slaughtered and consumed by the Jurin pirate boat, and the recording was left playing on the ship's displays as it was sent back to its origin point on autopilot. The Jurin government refused to condemn the action, and relations between the two species have never been great.

Which is how the Jurin like it.

It's a standard boarding party, numbering nearly a hundred. Less than a quarter of that number will remain on the frigate, those who have lost the privilege of claiming the glory of slaughter. Oh yes, the Jurin are one of the few who'll actually try to penetrate into the mess. Their religion demands that they butcher and consume "lesser races".

The humans huddle together. There's fewer than twenty of them, but they seem to be coming up with a plan. Human Emma scurries to the control room attached to the mess, and starts doing _something_ to the environmental systems. Human David increases the speed of his tinkering with the communications system, throwing his audio device at Human James with a barked command of "you know which song we need".

We can see on the monitor what Emma has done. There are four entrances to the mess: port, starboard, fore, and aft. She has vented the corridors leading to all but one of those, forcing the Jurin to use only one door to attack us. The other humans have flipped tables over, forming a series of three parallel barriers that face the door. They are cajoling everyone who can use a rifle to get behind them, to await the Jurin's inevitable entry.

The bastards are expert computer hackers, able to force our own ship to open the doors for their gory pleasure. And while they _could_ repressurise the vented compartments, that would take time which they didn't have.

Soon we hear the clanging of the interlocks opening, that precede the door's opening. And the [music started](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSijflG5foI).

We thought that this time we were ready for the synchronisation that the right music creates in humans. We thought it would be the two-one beat of before. We were wrong.

The Jurin thought the crew of an Alliance scientific ship would be easy prey. That even having humans on board would only enhance their fun. They were wrong.

The rifle fire rattled into the Jurin lines. The [music changed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN87mVzL28s), from human voices to a strident screeching instrument that the humans _still_ had words for.

It was in the [third song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOeYPpOblAw) that the rifle fire died away, and the humans cautiously stepped from behind the tables to approach the heaped piles of Jurin dead.

Forced into a narrow space, unable to surround us and pick us off from all sides, the pirates had charged straight into a hail of rifle fire. Their pride wounded, they had continued to charge, even when they were clambering over their own dead.

Most of us watched in horror as the humans and the other more martial-minded species on board methodically turned the Jurin's own dreams of slaughter back on them.

And we realised that what we were told was right: humans all working towards a common cause was a far more terrifying thing that _anything_ we had ever encountered before.

Pray to whatever you believe in that you never make them your enemy.


End file.
